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A Coming of Age For Chivas Regal

Chivas Regal will reposition itself this fall to target a more mature crowd via a $40 million global effort tagged, “The Chivas life.”

G1\Paris is creating the TV spots, which will run on cable in the U.S., and Omnicom Group affiliate Brand Architecture International in New York is handling print. Ads will be more realistic than before, focusing on themes of maturity and coming of age while embracing the brand’s luxury roots, said Chris Willis, client vp of marketing, who would not reveal further specifics about the creative.

“Chivas has had a lot of different campaigns over the last 20 years,” said Willis. “We’ve had some brand-image issues where ads focused on things that were aspirational but not attainable. Our audience has to be able to identify with the situation.”

Chivas previously targeted a younger crowd but found itself competing against “white spirits” such as vodka, which are typically more popular with that segment, said Willis. “We’ve revised our target consumer,” he said. “Our former target had been the newly grown up, but [that skewed] a little young.”

The new effort will also target the U.S. Hispanic market more, Willis added. “It’s the area with the most potential for overall growth,” he said.

The work is the first since Pernod Ricard bought Chivas in 2001 and named it its flagship brand.

As much as 20 percent of the global budget will go to U.S. marketing for Chivas, the No. 5 U.S. Scotch whisky. (Dewar’s is No. 1, followed by Johnnie Walker Red, Clan MacGregor and Johnnie Walker Black.) Chivas spent about $4 million on U.S. measured media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

The current tagline is, “When you know.” One recent print ad features an image of a woman in a bikini with the line, “Yes, God is a man.”